What are yours?
If any of the themes below resonate with you, I’d love to hear from you.
with love ✨, CATHERINE
Observations on moving, breathing and being. These are mine.
I’ve been writing them down since 2020.
I took a long pause. I’m back now.
On trust
I met a new friend this week. She and I didn't exchange a word. Well, that's not true. I spoke to her, but she didn't respond verbally herself. Rather, she relied on her instincts—tuning into my tone, my posture, my movements, my energy—to communicate with and respond to me. It was a short-lived friendship. I'll likely never see her again. Yet it stayed with me. It left me ruminating on the notion of trust, of what it takes to trust in someone or something else, on what it takes to trust oneself.
How did my newfound friend know that she could trust me?
On rejection
The job search is hard. For anyone in it, you know it’s not for the faint of heart. It toys with our emotions. Some weeks are high, some weeks are low. Last week? A low for me. I had two opportunities out there that were good in and of themselves. As someone underemployed yet again, I had built them up to be great—end all, be all great.
And then rejection came.
On balance
Our bodies are very smart. They’ll spotlight A LOT for us if we just accept the invitation to look inwards and observe.
Are we (or are we not) sleeping well?
Are we eating more (or less) than we normally might?
Are we getting headaches more frequently than before?
Beginnings (part 2)
It is a hard and beautiful time to be alive. These words could likely be written, read, spoken, heard at any time in history to accurately represent life, yet they seem particularly fitting in this present moment.
Many of us right now are likely angered, saddened, anxious. As if we didn’t have enough already to carry, we bore witness earlier this week to an incomprehensible act of sedition and insurrection at one of the foremost symbols of democracy in the world. We are shaken.
…
It is during these moments of incomprehension that I am even more grateful for my self-care and well-being practices that are so strongly anchored in yoga. It is through these disciplined practices that I can still attempt an inner calm despite all that is with respect to work and love and life.
So as we enter into week two of this new year…what might we implement today to nurture and foster this inner stillness and influence our perspective on life?
A reflection on the power of a mantra or the breath
I apologize for sending this note so late in the afternoon. I experienced a few minor distractions this morning as I was leaving Harrisonburg (VA) after a mini two-day, self-care retreat. Having lost power unexpectedly at my Airbnb, I then experienced connectivity issues at the local coffee shop. As I felt my nemesis, Stress, start to invite herself inside, I looked up and saw the sandwich board outside the cafe.
On one side, it read:
In the midst of the chaos lies opportunity.
On the other side:
Your worth is not measured by your productivity.
A reflection on “The Work”
I’m tired. I think we’re all tired. Today being the midway point of the year (yes, it is the end of June!) gives us a time to pause, to tune into our current state, to reflect on the connection between our body, breath and mind. Are they connected, and if so, how? Is it through awareness? Intelligence? Compassion? Or is it via our emotions, which often lead us astray from the truth?
